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Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo

Neon Genesis Evangelion is a legendary series which made its First Impact in the anime industry seventeen years ago. Boasting a cast of characters as intricate as the plot itself, Evangelion has earned both pride and glory as one of the pioneering anime series that has garnered massive audiences and acclaim around the world.

But this praise is not without being sullied with controversy.

Indeed, the original Neon Genesis Evangelion adaptation was notoriously known for its unconventional plot, its extensive complexity of drama and its indescribably upending conclusion which had left even those most hardened fans mad with confused outrage. The Rebuild of Evangelion tetralogy of films were produced with the aim of doing justice to the original series.

Now the question remains: Has Hideaki Anno, the Neon Genesis Evangelion series creator, stepped closer to the completion of his beloved Evangelion as he wanted it to be?

Rebuild of Evangelion: Evangelion 3.0 Q Quickening takes off fourteen years after the Near-Third Impact that was triggered at the end of Rebuild of Evangelion: Evangelion 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance. After this lengthy period of time, everything that we have come to familiarize ourselves with from the two preceding movies has been drastically and irreversibly transformed. Be warned and brace yourself as you watch this next instalment of the Evangelion series, for this is -the- Evangelion that you are facing and it will not fail to throw you off your rocker regardless of how well-anchored your chair may be.

There is no shortage of action in this film and Evangelion 3.0 delivers quite the powerful punch. The opening sequence is merely a taste of the intense combat that is featured throughout the film. An entire set of new EVA units is introduced in this latest instalment for each of the young pilots. The new mecha units have been redesigned and upgraded to beefier and vastly more powerful versions of the predecessors, which is no surprise considering the large time lapse that has taken place. However, unlike in previous conflicts, the battles that are now being fought are not simply between Mankind and Angels. With the advent of the Near-Third Impact, loyalties have shifted and Misato Katsuragi’s anti-NERV organization WILLE now wages a brutal war against NERV with its flagship the AAA Wunder that possesses enough insane power to kill even God.

The dramatic changes unveiled in Evangelion 3.0 do not simply limit themselves to merely new EVA units and circumstances. Surprisingly, the most unsettling transformations occur at the human level. Past allies have become each other’s mortal enemies in this desperate and merciless battle to determine the future of Mankind. Evangelion 3.0 paints a grim blood red future which is personified by the redesigned returning characters and on the newcomers to the cast. The atrocities of war have been made apparent on the battle-hardened and gloomy faces of the cast. It is quickly ascertained that humanity harbours a great contempt for a tragically oblivious and ignorant Shinji Ikari and it is implied that the responsibility of a dreadful sin weighs on heavily on his shoulders. Ironically, much to the contrast of the entire world that has changed around him, Shinji Ikari manifests no change whatsoever despite the time that has passed since his last conscious thoughts. Veterans such as Misato Katsuragi and Gendou Ikari return with menacing demeanours and sporting superfluous eyewear. Unit 02-Dash EVA pilot Asuka Langley Shikinami makes a stunning return with a magnificent eye patch and her trademark tsundere compliments. Fans will also rejoice with the coming of Mari Illustrious Makinami’s glasses and her perpetual state of latent sexual attractiveness. Kaworu Nagisa makes his debut as the new EVA pilot and steals the hearts of many with his enigmatic charisma. In essence, Evangelion 3.0 features the original cast whose colours and identities that have been completely repainted with the red gore of war.

Evangelion reprises its role as an animated psychological trip straight to the mental asylum, but unlike the original adaptation, Rebuild of Evangelion manages to fall into the boundaries of comprehension that mere mortals possess. The film itself takes on a grim atmosphere and maintains a subconscious aura of mystery that shrouds the audience in ignorance. Many details concerning the events that occurred within the fourteen year time lapse were meticulously withheld for a large part of the movie and the culmination of this tension has a tendency to leave its viewers in a catatonic state of shock. Near the film’s conclusion, viewers may expect to suffer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and exhibit inexplicable confusion with many unanswered questions that will hopefully be resolved in the series finale. Currently, I can attest to that deranged and disturbed mental state.

The musical score of Evangelion 3.0 composed by Shiro Sagisu is an artistic masterpiece in itself. The music features a harmonic symbiotic relationship between orchestral instruments, choir and electric guitars surprisingly added to the mix. Most strikingly of all, the piano pieces steal the spotlight. Kaworu and Shinji’s piano duet vastly contrasts the doom-and-gloom atmosphere that Evangelion 3.0 boasts, but their light musical presentation was a refreshing welcome which provided a brief respite to the other heavy piano pieces that reflected the grim circumstances. Hikaru Utada’s fans will also scream in delight with her return to the musical scene with the melancholic Sakura Nagashi featured while the curtain of credits draw to a close.

With the long-awaited and highly anticipated Evangelion 3.0 aweing its audience with top-tier animation quality and a masterfully executed story reaching its conclusion, viewers will be left with even more questions and angst as they wait for the Rebuild of Evangelion to draw to its inevitable close. Evangelion 3.0 leaves much to be desired, and perhaps to the dismay of many, its direction may be out of the comfort zone that was presented in the preceding films. It seems that the producers are hell-bent on pursuing the near-suicidal mission of saving the original Neon Genesis Evangelion ending, and in order to achieve this daunting task, they employ the same tactic of “screwing over Shinji as many times using the most dastardly means that they can possibly conceive.” After all, it is Evangelion, and it is a necessity that the remake lives up to its reputation. One can only dream that they succeed, and I look forward to that day.

Now returning to the initial premise of embarking on this arduous and lengthy journey; have we come one step closer to answering Hideaki Anno’s goal of remaking Evangelion as it he wanted it to be? Alas, that is a question which can only be answered by Anno himself. However, as witnesses of his artistic masterpieces, each individual of his audience is privy to their own answer to that question. With this, I thank you for reading mine. read more

[Spoilers obviously]

I saw Rebuild 3.0 about a month ago, and during that time I didn't think much of it. It was just another movie in the series, and I didn't analyze it to any significant extent. The action was intense, the plot seemed interesting at the time, the animation quality was superb.
Recently however (coinciding with the UTW BD subs release), there has been an influx of discussion posts in about 3.0, and I figured that there had to be a reason for such a community reaction to the movie; there must be more to think about. So I went to re-watch the movie again with a bit more acuity and that's when I came to a conclusion:

The movie was a huge cop-out.

Evangelion 3.0 answered no questions. I am in no way exaggerating when I say that the movie was better at taking away things that we previously knew rather than clarifying anything for us in the Rebuild series. This is itself is not a bad aspect of the movie, as it can be attributed to two things

a) Gainax wants us to ask a lot of questions and get curious so that we'll buy 4.0

b) Anno is trying to be clever and allow the viewers to emulate Shinji's confusion after 14 years in sleep by giving the viewers that same confusion.

The second option seems much more likely, and in such a case I could say that it was executed well. Shinji probably had no idea what in the world was going on during the entire movie, and I can reciprocate that feeling. If I had to make a list of everything that was left unanswered or simply pulled out of Gainax's ass, it would have to be:

1. Why did there have to be a 14 year time skip? The teaser at the end of 2.0 did not imply a time skip in any way and I don't think there was even a need for such a long one. I expected the story to pick up immediately after Kaworu speared Shinji and it could have easily done so with much less clumsy exposition ("Hey Shinji, let's play play Shogi. Oh yeah by the way your mom is the soul of Unit 01 and all Reis are clones of your mom. Oh, and you suck at Shogi.")

2. Why was everyone a dick to Shinji when at the end of 2.0 it seemed like everyone was fine with him going all out and even egged him on? It was also clear at the end of 2.0 that Shinji did not cause enough damage to obliterate the Geofront as shown in 3.0, as Kaworu stopped him beforehand and everyone had evacuated to a shelter of some sort. The desolate wastelands and weird spinning moons and chalices were never explained and were most certainly not Shinji's fault (as the teaster in the end of 2.0 shows a clear afternoon sky and a calm Geofront shortly after Shinji gets speared).

3. Why did WILLE need to break from NERV? It was not NERV's fault that Shinji's supposed Third Impact happened, and it's not like anyone knew of Gendo's Human Instrumentality plan (which I assume was already on the way, because Kaworu seemed prepared enough). There's doesn't seem to have been a need to Misato to have broken from NERV, as NERV wasn't doing anything wrong. It feels like the existence of WILLE in 3.0 is just there to give a conflict without any real depth.
What's the significance of having the two spears be Longinus types? How does that even happen and why in the world did that make a difference?

4. Was there any reason to have Unit 06 to contain the Twelfth Angel? I thought Kaworu was pretty comfortable using Unit 06 and I'm not sure why the Twelfth Angel would even be needed to start Instrumentality. Also, how did Kaworu "fall" from the first Angel (which is supposed to be Adam) to the Twelfth Angel and why did that make a difference? Heck, I'll go as far as to say that the entire scene at the bottom of the Geofront was just pulled out of Gainax's ass, there was literally no context for anything (Lilith is dead for some reason. Just go with it, we're not going to explain.)

Those are just five big ones that I named off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are plenty of other plot holes and unexplained things that I'm missing. 3.0 definitely had the well-choreographed fight scenes and beautiful animation to surpass it's predecessors in spectacle, but it was just that: spectacle. Every significant plot device (WILLE and Wunder, two Lances of Longinus, Adam's Vessel, etc.) just appeared out of thin air and was force-fed into our minds at a lightning-fast rate.

Of course I don't go into anything in the Evangelion franchise expecting answers. In fact, answers are the opposite of what I usually expect from anything Evangelion. However, there is a difference between using unanswered questions in context with previously known facts to generate suspense and curiosity and just taking a bunch of haphazard ideas, animating them, and throwing them in no particular order or significance into a movie that was three years in the making. In fact, I walked into 3.0 fully anticipating a high level of suspense and ambiguity. I would have left satisfied, but instead all I got was Gainax telling me, "Hey, everything that we told you before doesn't mean shit. Now here, take all of these incidental plot lines and characters that we just came up with and expect you to care about with no context and go enjoy yourself a movie."

In fact, none of these things would even have effected me if it weren't for my biggest peeve with the movie: the way Rei was treated. Okay, sure I can buy that original Rei wasn't salvaged from Unit 01. But don't try to play off this new Rei clone as being developed in some way and expect us to care about her or feel anything when she makes the supposedly miraculous decision and decides to eject from Unit 09. No Hideaki Anno, we've spent two movies geting to know the first Rei and seeing her develop from the stoic white-haired nonchalant to a character that can actually warm up and make Shinji happy. It's perfectly fine if she gets killed off for shock factor and for another burden on Shinji's conscience, but that in no way works if you simply introduce another stoic white-haired nonchalant and try to develop her in the same way. Let me guess, this Rei dies/disintegrates/becomes and Instrumentality Trigger too? Big deal.

Maybe I had too many expectations of the movie. Maybe I shouldn't have gone into 3.0 with security in my thoughts. Maybe I'm simply not watching it properly or maybe I even missed everything important in the movie (What more can there be? We already know that the all the imagery and symbolism is just there to look cool). But even if I had a complete and 100% understanding of everything that could have led up to and been in the movie (which is not really the intention of the Evangelion series, and is probably not possible), 3.0 still had a lazy and bullshit execution of a plot. Sure, anyone can go ahead and tell me that I am meant to be confused all I want, but a line must be drawn between confusing your viewers intentionally and failing to make a cohesive and coherent storyline.

TL;DR: Hideaki Anno pulled 3.0 out of Gainax's ambiguous (albeit well-animated) ass. read more